Chapter 1
Political Blogging
Politics and Participation
New technologies often change our lives in dramatic and unexpected ways. The Internet has perhaps transformed our public and private lives more quickly than any other technological innovation in the twentieth century. How we conduct business, maintain relationships, and participate in politics have been altered because of the Internet. With the maturation of the Internet, online communications have been significantly transformed from the early days of e-mail and chat rooms to todayâs widespread use of social networking sites like Facebook and video sharing sites such as YouTube. Among the emerging technologies facilitating online communication, political blogs are a prominent agent driving many of these rapid changes.
Blogging has changed the political landscape in the United States, fundamentally transforming politics and civic engagement. Political bloggers were credited with unseating Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott in 20021 and assembling 20,000 demonstrators to march on behalf of the Jena Six in 2007.2 Checking the major media outlets, political bloggers unearthed falsified documents produced by CBS in 20043 and revealed enhanced news photos depicting âplumes of smokeâ from the Iraq war in 2006.4 Indicators of their influence, political parties and the mainstream have been obliged to accommodate bloggers. Both the Democratic and Republican Parties credentialed bloggers in 2004 and 2008, permitting coverage of the nominating conventions, while major media outlets like the Atlantic and the New York Times integrated bloggers into their regular coverage, thereby legitimizing the role of political bloggers.
The impact of political blogging on politics and civic engagement has not been examined systematically. Some scholars contend that political blogging may lead to greater polarization, while others assert that the flow of information is democratized through blogging. The benefits of information dissemination far outweigh the disadvantages of partisan politics. Given the burgeoning interest in blogging, the study of political blogging and its attendant influence is germane to both scholars of the Internet and political participation.
Drawing upon several literatures from political science and communication studies, this book investigates political blogging. Divided into two parts, the first part of the book studies specific groups of political bloggers based on gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity. It inventories the individuals engaged in political blogging and provides a demographic profile of these bloggers. Specifically, it examines whether and how political blogging facilitates civic engagement and mobilization among minorities and underrepresented groups, which have traditionally experienced lower rates of participation.
I argue that political blogging is indeed a new form of political participation, which can potentially transform politics and lead to increased civic engagement. Political blogging occupies a small, but important, place in US politics. Under consideration are the types of political activities in which political bloggers are engaged. For example, do political bloggers participate in politics through blogging or more traditional activities such as voting or sending an e-mail to an elected official? Similarly, do political bloggers encourage their readers to undertake political activities, and how do they go about doing this?
To a lesser degree, this research also assesses political bloggersâ perceptions of influence and discrimination in the blogosphere, as well as the challenges associated with political blogging. Although the blogosphere is comprised predominantly of white males, its potential to empower other citizens is noteworthy. Based on a variety of data, I argue that the political blogosphere provides opportunities to influence the political process in new ways. For example, political bloggers can publicize important issues, and encourage their readers to take action based on the personal rapport they have with their readers. I argue that political blogging improves the prospects for participation for minorities and underrepresented groups. Oneâs race, gender, occupation, or political affiliation presents few, if any, barriers to political blogging.
The second part of the book investigates how elite political actorsâ Members of Congress and candidates running for elected officeâuse political blogs. Descriptive analysis explains how these actors use political blogs for purposes related to representation and political campaigns. It explores, for example, whether or not political blogging enhances representation. Similarly, it evaluates the impact of candidate blogs in the 2008 presidential primaries and analyses blog posts from Barack Obama and John McCain following the respective national conventions. Finally, this research assesses the usefulness of blogs for political elites.
I argue that political elites use their blogs in fundamentally different ways than other political bloggers. Central to these bloggers is blogging as a means of informing a specific political constituency of interested readers, rather than appealing to a wider readership. The features found on most political blogs are often absent on congressional and campaign-centered blogs. Most political blogs contain archives, whereas congressional and campaign blogs do not necessarily contain these features. Similarly, comment sections are commonplace on political blogs while this is not necessarily the case for campaign blogs. Despite the differences between the blogs of political elites and other types of political bloggers, I argue that the former have transformed politics, particularly political campaigns. Voters have greater access to candidates and their campaigns, while candidates can issue updates through their blogs circumventing negative media.
Finally, this work assesses whether political blogging is an asset or a detriment to the political system. In addition to providing empirical analysis, this work attempts to better integrate several theoretical constructs, detailed in the next section. It illustrates the broader relevance of political blogging to political science and communication studies, suggesting that many of the prevailing notions of participation and political discourse merit further examination in light of the findings from this work.
Political Blogging and its Theoretical Context
To date, a majority of studies about political blogging focus on blogging as a new media form or they highlight noteworthy political events that arise because of misconduct or error. In contrast, this work explores how political blogging affects politics and civic engagement on a day-to-day basis. The following section outlines the larger theoretical issues that frame the subsequent chapters.
Political Participation
Participation and participatory democracy are themes that run throughout this work. Since the 1960s, political participation has experienced a steady decline. Data show that turnout among registered voters has averaged between 50 and 55 percent of voters during presidential elections. The last two presidential elections in the United States have yielded higher than average turn-outs, with 57 percent of voters casting ballots in the 2004 election and 61 percent in the 2008 election. While not necessarily correlated, candidate-centered blogs came to the fore of the presidential campaign in 2004, when Howard Dean created Blog for America to mobilize voters and speak directly to voters through his blog. New technologies, including political blogs, also figured prominently in the 2008 presidential race. Barack Obamaâs campaign employed a variety of new technologies, whereas John McCainâs campaign appears to have placed less value on new technologies, blogging infrequently and providing fewer links to social networking sites. Remarkably, the 2008 presidential election was the first time in 40 years that turnout exceeded 60 percent. Whether or not these upticks in turnout are aberrations and the extent to which political blogs impact presidential elections remains to be seen.
Besides voting, other forms of participation are similarly depressed. Verba, Schlozman, and Brady illustrate how forms of participation such as contacting an elected official or attending a rally have declined and how disparities across class, race, ethnicity, and gender persist.5 According to the authors,
Those who participate, according to the authors, are disproportionately those with greater resourcesâtime, money, and skills. Robert Putnam, in his renowned work Bowling Alone, illustrates how declining membership in civic organizations contributes to diminished civic engagement.7 According to Putnam, âAmericans are bowling aloneâ; they are not engaged socially or in the community. He finds that while the number of individuals who bowl has increased, the number of individuals who have joined bowling leagues has decreased. Despite these findings, he acknowledges that it is too early to assess the impact of the Internet, but concedes that it might be a key to improving civic engagement and social connectedness.
Expectedly, these accounts do not captureâor only partially explainâthe influence of the Internet. Political blogs have upended the prevailing notions of participation. Comparatively, the entry costs to blogging are relatively low. With access to the Internet nearly anyone can blog, especially given the simplicity of blogging software. Alone blogging provides a new vehicle for participation. It is convenient. With a computer and Internet access, one can blog from home, the office, or a remote location. Alongside traditional modes of participation, blogging has revolutionized civic engagement. While it does not negate traditional modes of participation, it often enhances existing modes of participation. Bloggers can organize marches, protests, or rallies using their blogs, that later occur offline.
Who has power and accessâespecially in the context of participation, political communications, and politicsâhas changed because of political blogs. In Communication for Development, Servaes focuses on participatory communication, differentiating between genuine and authentic participation.8 He writes that, â ârealâ participation has to be seen as participation â[that] directly addresses power and its distribution in society. It touches the very core of power relationships.â â9 No longer do credentials drive who has access or power. Unknown political bloggers, for example, can rise to instant name recognition, wielding power because they have expertise in a particular area. Powerful media corporations, previously gatekeepers, have less control over the creation and distribution of information because of political blogs. Similarly, greater Internet penetration provides more individuals with opportunities to influence politics, engage in political communication, and to participate. More individuals can participate in the political process in ways that were previously not possible. In many instances, the power-hold of geography over who and how individuals participate is diminished. Similarly, while several authors10 worry that the Internet may lead to greater political polarization or to âcyberbalkanizationââthe creation of insular, politically homogenous communities11âmany scholars assert that the Internet is a community that potentially builds and reinforces social connectedness and ultimately leads to increased political participation.12 This analysis of political blogging contributes to this debate by assessing whether political blogging is an asset or detriment to civic engagement.
Political Discourse and Political Communications
Blogging has also substantially altered political discourse by changing how and when people discuss politics. Bimber asserts that elites have the âcapacity to influence public opinion, set agendas, mobilize citizens into collective action, make decisions and implement policies.â13 This book explores how individuals use their blogs to engage in these activities. Many feminist bloggers, for example, actively seek to shape agendas relevant to womenâs rights. Dialogue among bloggers and readers results in an exchange of ideas that can result in cohesive action be it policy or mobilization. Exchanges can be communicated asynchronously with a myriad of individualsâlikeminded and otherwiseâabsent geography. Unlike other print or online media, blogging not only relies upon content creation and readership, but an integral component of political blogging is reader comments. Because bloggers and readers interact with each other through the comment section this medium can be characterized as multidimensional, whereas other types of print media are largely characterized as two-dimensional. Political communication in the blogosphere is unlimited in scope and magnitude. This aspect of political blogging contributes to reinvigorating political discourse unlike any other modern media.
Communicating political information used to be the sole domain of the mediaâbe it radio, television, newspapers, or magazines. While most political bloggers do not provide breaking coverage of news events, a majority link to important articles and/or provide commentary on politics, public policy, and current events. Disseminating news has been altered, in that bloggers highlight articles they deem important, thereby diminishing the power of giant media corporations. Readers might otherwise miss or pay less attention to these articles if not for bloggers. Available print space, editorial control, and press credentials previously limited commentary and analysis of news articles. Similarly, credentialed or influential individuals write a preponderance of âLetters to the Editor,â which appear in the New York Times. Bloggers face few of these obstacles.
Representation
Studies that examine the impact of the Internet on representation indicate that legislators at the national and local levels of government use the Internet to communicate with constituents, respond to policy demands, and provide services and respond to the needs of individuals and groups.14 In David Mayhewâs famous work, Congress: The Electoral Connection, legislators have one principal goal: to get re-elected. Mayhew found that members aim to enhance their chances of securing reelection by advertising, credit claiming, and position taking.15 Years later, with the advent of the Internet, several authors assess whether and how legislators engage in these activities.16 The authors find that legislators do indeed use the Internet to engage in advertising and posi...
